Received December 15, 2016; Revision received February 15, 2017
In this study, we for the first time described the variability of
methylation levels of 71 CpG sites in microRNA genes in leukocytes and
blood vessels (coronary artery atherosclerotic plaques, intact internal
thoracic arteries, and great saphenous veins) in patients with
atherosclerosis using the Infinium HumanMethylation27 BeadChip
microarray. Most of the analyzed CpG sites were characterized by the
low variability, and most of these low-variable sites were
hypomethylated in all tissue samples. CpG sites in coronary artery
atherosclerotic plaques and leukocytes were similar in their
methylation status. The highest variability of CpG methylation levels
between different tissues was found for the CpG sites of the
MIR10B gene; the methylation levels of these sites in leukocytes
and atherosclerotic arteries were lower than in intact blood vessels.
We also found that several cardiovascular disease risk factors, as well
as medications, might affect methylation levels of CpG sites in
microRNAs.
KEY WORDS: atherosclerosis, microRNA, methylation